


Love After Death

by chatonfils



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Blood, Don’t copy to another site, Gay Keith, Guns, Hunay, Keith has ptsd, M/M, Mentions of past abuse, Mentions of past homophobia, Mentions of past non con, Shatt, Shiro has PTSD, Soulmate AU, Soulmates, Soulmates AU, TWD AU, The Walking Dead AU, Trans Lance, Trans Male Character, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies, bi lance, keith has flashbacks, klance, mentions of past character death, mentions of past hetero conditioning, mentions of past trauma, no one in current time dies, slowburn, soulmate, zombie apocalypse AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2020-06-29 15:32:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19833160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chatonfils/pseuds/chatonfils
Summary: Love finds young men in the strangest of times and places. That’s why finding out that his soulmark matches that arrogant sharpshooter that saved him from a walker, came as such a surprise to Keith. Because truly, who even cares about soulmates when it’s the end of the world and the dead have risen?Zombie Apocalypse Soulmate AU





	1. Chapter 1

The ground was wet with blood, soaking into his pants. He was too young. Too scared. The others had done nothing to help his father. They’d held him back. Made him see. The teeth that’d torn into him. He saw the moment his father realized he wasn’t going to make it. The yell for him to turn away. To not watch. To run. He could only struggle against the other campers’ grips. Surging forward to try to save him. But he couldn’t. Stuck. Helpless. Reliving the choked “I love you, son.” over and over.

Keith gasped, his strangled breath startling a nearby animal. He was sweating profusely. He counted to ten, calming himself down from the nightmare.

Irritation bubbled beneath his skin as he sighed deeply. You’d think after almost a decade, he’d have shaken that dream by now. But it still came to him most nights. Some things you can never unsee, and he supposed that witnessing his father’s death just had to be one of those unfortunate occurrences. The thought of having that dream again gave him a headache.

It’d been so long since he and his dad had started the journey, so many years since they’d left their home town. Far too long since Keith had seen his brother. Keith couldn’t believe that the stupid zombie apocalypse broke out when his brother was on a college trip on the literal other end of the country.

He’d been making his way towards Washington for ten years. He wasn’t great at paying attention to small things, but he did keep count of every day that passed. 3,743 days since they’d left McAllen. 3,743 days he’d been traveling towards Bellingham.

It was only meant to be a few months.

When they’d left, Keith’s father told him that it wouldn’t be that long before they saw Takashi again. A year later, they were still in Texas, and that was when his father died.

Keith had stayed with that group for far too long. They never asked him to leave. Because who would ask an orphaned eleven year old to face the apocalypse on his own? Eventually, many months later, he left of his own accord. Silent, fast, and in the middle of the night. Barely twelve and already making his way by himself.

Other camps and other people came and went in Keith’s life. He slowly made his way north. In winters he would find and clear out supermarkets, living off of what hadn’t been raided. And in case he’d ever missed any walkers on his way through, he always slept high up. Mostly using ropes to haul himself into the rafters or into trees.

When he was 15 he had barely made it to New Mexico. However he’d found a camp where he thought it might be nice to settle down. It’d been five years at that point. He was being naive to think that Takashi was still waiting for him if he was even still alive.

The group of people was made up of about seven families, half of which were children and young adults. Among them was a girl named Samantha. The small bug mark on her wrist didn’t match the fish on his lower back. And that was okay. No one he’d met yet had found their soulmates since the end of the world began. And they liked each other.

Or at least he thought so.

It wasn’t until he was nearly 17 that he realized that while he’d enjoyed Samantha’s company and presence, he wasn’t attracted to her. Her older brother on the other hand. Well, let’s just say Keith had different preferences than what he’d originally thought.

Breaking the news that he was gay to Samantha went about as swimmingly as one could imagine. It hadn’t occurred to him that so many years into the end of the world that people would care about something like that. And he had been shielded from so much of that as a child that he hadn’t expected it. And he certainly couldn’t have predicted the actions they would take to try to prove to him that he was wrong.

It was months before he’d been able to escape. Barely able to grab the knife his mother had given him years prior. He ran several miles off course in order to make sure they would never find him. They had known where he’d been headed to originally. And he wasn’t sure they wouldn’t seek him out. Especially after- he didn’t want to think about it.

Twenty years old, and ready to find out the truth, he was finally on the last stretch of his trip. He’d made it into Washington earlier that week, and hauled ass to make it the rest of the way. He had waited for so many years for the moment to see Takashi again. And if he was still alive, he’d be there.

Things hit a snag when he’d gotten lost in thought, crossing through an empty town to get to the next forest.

There was an unexpected undead running after him because he’d gotten distracted. That definitely wasn’t apart of his plan. How ironic it would be if he died just before making it to his final destination. He even thought he might as he ran through some trees, making a ruckus and most likely drawing more attention from other walkers in the nearby vicinity.

A clear and deafening shot rang out just as the walker had gotten it’s hand on Keith’s backpack. His heart jumped into his throat, and he wriggled out of the limp fingers holding onto the side of his pack. He was able to pull out his knife and jump around, to make sure he could take care of the walker. He probably should have realized that the shot was for the one that grabbed him. It was shot perfectly in the middle of the forehead. The shooter was long range and managed to hit it with an unreal level of accuracy. Keith was colored impressed.

It wasn’t long before he heard footsteps heading his way. Whether they be from whoever had shot the walker, or other walkers, he didn’t want to wait to find out. Quickly he pulled out his emergency rope and tossed it over a tree branch that was high up. So if it was the later of his options, they wouldn’t be able to reach him after he’d pulled himself off the ground.

However, judging by the voices, he was most likely safe. “I can’t believe that idiot,” a voice said, barely audible at that distance.

Another voice, who seemed much more chipper than the first responded, “well he said he saw a man running from the zombie.”

“Why must you insist on using that word?” her reply was clearer than the initial words he’d heard.

A different voice chuckled, almost nervously, “it’s less scary hearing the word Zombie.”

“Exactly! We say ‘zombie’ for Hunk’s sake.” The chipper voice went on.

The woman sighed. “How much you want to bet that there’s no one out here to save and he just shot a walker because he wanted to show off.”

The man that Keith guessed was Hunk replied to her. “No, he’s not that reckless. Didn’t you notice how freaked out he was? He’s a show off, but he genuinely saw someone. He said the guy had a mullet.”

“I remember the days I had a mullet.” The chipper man laughed.

“Coran, you are the strangest man I’ve ever met.” The woman said.

Keith kept quiet, observing them as he saw their figures coming closer to the small clearing. He elongated his body to not draw attention as a strange shape in the tree. The rope he’d used was tied to the branch above him, securing him to his spot.

The woman was the first to enter the clearing. Her long white hair was high in a ponytail. She had a gun in her hands, and what looked to be a whip on her belt. Her sight almost immediately zeroed in on the walker that was down near the bottom of his tree. “Here’s the one that Lance shot.” A tall man with brilliant orange hair and a mustache wasn’t far behind her. The Orange-haired man had no visible weapons. Trailing along next to him was another man who had a bandana wrapped around his forehead. He was lugging around a comically large gun. “There’s no one else around here. So I was right. Lance just wanted to shoot something.” She sounded annoyed. “We are going to have walkers crawling all around here by nightfall.”

The orange-haired man didn’t reply, instead just smirking up to where he’d spotted Keith in the tree. The bandana guy, who had the voice of the one he’d assumed to be Hunk, said, “no, look, there’s more than one set of footprints. Which means there definitely is a person. But it’s weird how they just stop. It rained this morning, all we are doing is leaving tracks, so unless he stepped back into his own footsteps, I don’t know where the guy could have gone.”

Keith raised an eyebrow at his response. How had neither the woman or Hunk have seen him while the man he guessed to be Coran was staring directly at them. His cover was already blown, and considering they weren’t walkers, it was most likely safe to say something. “Just like you, walkers don’t think to look up, either.” The two of them startled, while Coran laughed.

“Right you are, my boy! That’s a great tactic to keep out of the zombie’s reach. But do tell me, how did you manage to get all the way up there so fast? We only took a few minutes to get here.” He said. His voice reminded him vaguely of Santa Claus.

Keith smirked. He grabbed onto the rope in his lap, pulled on a loop to release the knot holding him still, and he jumped out of the tree. The widened eyes beneath him made it worth the dramatics. He only fell a few inches before it caught and he was able to lower himself to the ground. “I’ve been doing this for a while.”

“Clearly,” the woman said in a dry voice. “I’m Allura. This is Coran and Hunk.” She gestured to the other two. His assumptions were correct on which was which.

He nodded in greeting to them. “I’m Keith.” Hunk stuck his hand out for a handshake, which Keith obliged.

Allura looked skeptically at him. “Are you passing through or here to stay?”

“Depends. Did I make it to Bellingham?”

Allura scrunched up her face in confusion. Coran took the initiative to answer him though. “Our base is actually set up in Bellingham. It’s not that far from here.”

“Then I’ll be staying.” Keith said.

“Why seek out Bellingham of all places?” Allura asked.

Keith frowned. “It’s where my dad and I were headed once the outbreak happened. Took me two years just to get out of Texas after he- Anyways, the plan was to come here to meet up with my older brother. He was on a college visit at the time. Most likely dead by now.” He shook his head, trying to clear his head.

Hunk spoke up, “Well if he’s still around, he’s probably at the base. It’s pretty big, with a lot of people.” Keith let a small grateful smile grace his face.

“And as long as you help out, you are more than welcome to stay.” Coran gleefully added.

Allura frowned, still looking at Keith as if trying to piece him together. “We don’t tolerate bigotry here. So keep that in mind when you interact with people.”

“Will do.” He was never going to tell her or anyone else, for that matter, that he was gay. Keith was going to be safely hidden in an apparently accepting area, because he didn’t trust for such an idea to hold up again. Not after his last mistake of coming out.

Coran was the only one who spoke on their way towards the base. He was telling Keith about many of the people who were around. None of which seemed to be Takashi.

Arriving to their base was somewhat surreal. The area was much larger than any of the camps he’d been apart of prior. At least double the size of the biggest he’d seen. And people looked happy here, like the outside world wasn’t affecting them. As if there was no apocalypse and no shot had been fired not long before. There were kids running around and laughing, playing tag. A few woman were sitting around a table drinking what he presumed had to be lemonade.

There was one oddity, a taller, muscular man was yelling at a guy who lookedto be two seconds away from shooting him in the foot with the sniper rifle he was holding. He saw the frown deepen on Allura’s face, and a scowl form on Hunk’s. Coran’s smile dropped off his face and his talking dwindled to nothing.

“Oy!” Allura yelled. “Iverson, fuck off, would ya? We found the person Lance saved!” Both of the men snapped their heads towards Allura, the smaller looking relieved as hell to see her, the other with a vein popping up on his forehead from the force he must have been clenching his teeth with.

Snarling, the man who’d been yelling before gruffly made his way to argue with her. “Listen, Princess, the risk he put-“

“Listen here, you were not given any authority in this camp, for many reasons.” She interrupted him. “Most of which being, you’re a huge dick. But also, it was your men who slaughtered dozens, and you are beyond fortunate that we even let you stay here after your entire brigade died on your instructions. So why don’t you hop off your high horse and go secure the damn perimeter?” Keith swore the man was going to explode as he stomped away. He heard a few muffled laughs of others in their area who had listened in on the conversation.

The smaller man, who Keith was fairly sure Allura had referred to as Lance, gleefully ran over and wrapped Allura in a huge hug, “thanks for saving me Lurra!” She huffed a laugh and returned his hug. When he pulled back from her, his entire attention focused on Keith. His face lit up even more-so, if that was even possible. “Oh thank god, I saw you running when I was doing my check and nearly lost you by the time I managed to pull out the rifle. I’m glad you’re okay!”

Keith smiled at him, gently. “Thank you. I might have been meat had it not been for you.” Keith awkwardly shoved the rope he’d been carrying into a pocket, and offered his hand for a handshake. “My name’s Keith.”

The last thing Keith had expected was for Lance to gracefully take the hand offered and pull it to his lips. Lance kissed the hand in over-the-top bravado and winked at him. “The name’s Lance, and saving you was my pleasure.” A giant grin overtook his face as he let go of Keith’s hand, and bowed as if he’d just been given an outstanding applause for his life saving performance.

Keith’s eye twitched as he short circuited from Lance’s actions. Keith didn’t care if this guy just made it so he didn’t die, Lance was definitely someone he did not like.


	2. Chapter 2

After a few days, Keith had met most people at the base. None of them were his brother.

He knew it was unlikely to find Takashi after all that time, but it didn’t hurt any less. As if making it to Washington and finding him would make up for his father sacrificing himself to save Keith. And if Keith was being totally honest, to convince himself he wasn’t truly alone in the world. 

Keith had never let himself feel alone before. Not when his mother abandoned them. He had to be strong because his father cried himself to sleep most nights in the wake of her absence. Not when his father was killed. He had to be strong and make it to Takashi like he and their dad were going to. But with the last thing that had been his anchor, finally being stripped away, Keith was lost. Takashi was dead and he’d been alone for so long.

To avoid the feelings that curled up in his chest, he asked Allura for tasks to do each day. And that woman was not afraid to put him to work. He supposed that was a good thing as she was the person who seemed to be in charge. If a leader let newcomers get away with doing nothing, then he’s sure the community would crumble. She was a tad tough on him, to begin with, though. Maybe because of the way he recoiled when Lance had kissed his hand. She had said bigotry wasn’t tolerated, and he’s sure snatching his hand way from Lance seemed like he was homophobic. But honestly, what was he supposed to do in that situation?

The assignment Allura had given him that morning was to help Lance, of all people, collect fire-starters from a little outcropping of trees. It wasn’t far from the base, but far enough that it was easy to tell that the trees nearer to the camp had already been combed through for their droppings.

To his irritation, it seemed that Lance loved to hear himself talk. Keith didn’t even have to contribute to the conversation, Lance barely took any break long enough to catch a breath let alone enough time for another person jump in.

Not that Keith wanted to talk to him in the first place. 

Lance was annoying, to say the least. It seemed to Keith that Lance just loved to blow hot air and boost his own ego. He’d mentioned his “epic save” of Keith approximately seven times since he’d met him. While he was appreciative of not dying, he could really live without the consistent reminder that he’d been that close to failing. That he’d failed on his own and needed help from the overly conceited, loudmouth he was walking with.

And perhaps that line of thought was why he’d tuned out Lance’s voice. “Are you listening to me?” His voice sounded loudly in Keith’s ear. The breath warm against his ear.

‘Listen to me!’ The echo of a voice rang in his ears from words shouted long ago. ‘Look away!’ He froze and dropped the bag he was holding. His eyes focused in on Lance, but were unseeing. Instincts made him grab Lance and slam him into a tree. Lance yelped. Keith barely tethered himself back to the moment before he’d had a chance to grab his dagger. He jumped back from Lance.

“Shit, shit, sorry.” Keith’s heart was pounding heavily in his chest from the unexpected flashback. “Fuck. I’m so sorry.” He recoiled into himself.

Lance’s eyes were wide and looking at Keith, almost searching for something. Slowly, Lance stepped towards Keith. “Are you okay, Keith?”

Keith took another step away from Lance, his fear encompassing him in an unwanted blanket. “I’m sorry.” He repeated.

Lance frowned. “I’m not upset with you. If you have triggers, let a dude know next time. Trust me, Shiro body slammed me on accident, once, when I set off a trigger without knowing.” Lance shrugged. “It’s the apocalypse, pretty much everyone here has seen and gone through shit. The human brain really wasn’t made to withstand seeing people you love get eaten by undead versions of other people you love or similar situations.” Lance frowned deeper, “seriously, are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Keith turned away from Lance, he heart still beat unsteadily in his chest. 

He gave Keith a quizzical look. “I don’t believe you-“ Keith turned like he was going to protest but Lance put his his finger up. “I don’t believe you. But I will drop it.

Keith frowned at him and muttered a quick, “Thanks.” Then he turned away, somewhat embarrassed.

“I should also apologize.”

That caused Keith’s attention to snap back to Lance. “Why?” He tilted his head, much like a curious puppy.

“I kissed your hand when we met. And you freaked out a bit.” He nervously scratched the back of his neck. “I sometimes forget not everyone is okay with my antics and obviously that crossed a line.”

“I- you don’t really need to apologize for that. I don’t really do physical contact of any kind. It caught me off guard.”

He gestured wildly, waving his hands around, as though they helped to get his point across. “Exactly why I should apologize! You’re new and don’t know me, so it was rude.”

“I’m really not that bothered by it, Lance. I don’t think Allura realizes that, but it’s whatever. Just refrain from doing it again.”

“Yeah yeah, and I’ll tell Allura to chill. She keeps giving you odd jobs. I get that she wants to make sure my gay ass doesn’t get harassed, but like I’m fine. And you’re chill too.”

Keith raises an eyebrow. “Gay ass?”

“Well more like ‘bisexual and transgender ass’, but it’s just easier to say.”

Keith nods. “It’s good that she cares. She runs things a lot better than other camps.” He wished he’d had a chance to grow up in a place like this rather than other camps in the south.

Nodding enthusiastically, Lance responded, “She has the place running smoother than her father even did. She’s practically a goddess.”

“So you like her?” Keith smirked at the thought of Lance trying to woo the woman.

Lance barked a laugh. “At one point. But she’s really like my sister, now. Besides I’m more interested in finding my soulmate.”

“It’s the apocalypse, how do you plan on doing that?” Keith stooped down to gather more branches that a tree had dropped.

“You’d be surprised actually. There’s quite a few people who have found their soulmates over the years at our camp.” A smile was painted on his face. “Shiro and Matt started it. Then Hunk and Shay. Nyma and Rolo. The list goes on.”

“That’s the first that I’ve heard of that. As far as I was aware, the zombie outbreak ruined the chances for soulbonds to be fulfilled.”

“It’s what a lot of people thought. Every time someone new shows up here- which by the way, you’re the first in a few years- it’s pretty much inevitable that they’ll find their soulmate here if they haven’t already.” Lance pauses for a moment. “Have you found your soulmate yet?”

“No. But I’m not really looking for romance. I don’t really want to be tied to someone like that when I can’t deal with a relationship.”

“That’s fair. I mean I don’t really get it because I’m a hopeless romantic, but you gotta do what’s best for yourself.”

Keith hummed an affirmation to the sentiment.

They fell into comfortable silence until Lance got distracted. “Oh is that a bird’s nest?” Keith glanced over to see Lance reaching up into a tree to get a better look. His shirt rode up to reveal a small picture on his lower back. Keith nearly dropped all of the wood he had in his hands.

That was his soulmark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s been a hot minute since I updated this. But now that we’ve got the ball rolling and I have this out here hopefully it’ll be sooner for the next update.  
> I’m working on getting back into Voltron.  
> I think the main thing I gotta to is watch season 8, which I’ve not done yet. Then get back into reading fanfiction.  
> My fall out of Voltron content has mostly been due to the fact that I do not want spoilers and haven’t had much motivation to finish the series. However, with the fact that I’ve been doing cosplay tiktoks I may go through the entire series just for the fact that I can grab audio for it.   
> I’ve been watching Voltron Force and trying to catch up to where I left off on that and finally finish that as well for my V^V story. Y’all how do I even replicate the humor in VF??? It’s advanced and I can’t get enough of it. I should use that for tiktok audio, too.   
> I need to replace both my Keith and Lance wigs for my Voltron cosplays and actually finish off my Lance cos. Which reminds me! I got a picture with Josh Keaton while wearing a weird mixture of “I’m Lance but I have Keith’s shoes and belt/fanny packs” hsjsjsjs. I met a Keith cosplayer in line for the picture and her phone battery was running low so I just whipped out a portable charger and charging cable to let her use while we were in line lmao. Turns out she did a little devils love live shoot with one of my best friends at a different convention. Small world lmao.   
> Anyways I’m working to get back into Voltron especially since I totaled up the amount of words I’ve written for Voltron and ITS AT ALMOST 200000 WORDS?!? Like with as little as I’ve posted you would think that I never write. But the thing is I have over 80 different notes just for Voltron. I’m constantly writing, but my attention span is everywhere so getting one thing done and focusing on it is a hassle.   
> So hope y’all enjoyed the update.  
> If you want to follow me on other social media, my username for everything else is AddiyBlake.

**Author's Note:**

> If you’d like to join [my discord server](https://discord.gg/CXyyQKw) for fun chats and chaos, I now have one! It makes it a little easier to see when my stories will be updated instead of being left in the dark to wonder.
> 
> I will add tags as I think of them.  
> I do not plan on romanticizing ptsd at all. I do a lot of research before writing stuff like this. Actually I have to give credit to Dissociadid on YouTube for explaining PTSD in a manor of which I could better understand it, and they described it as “a memory processing disorder” which makes a lot more sense, because ptsd causes your brain to put away thoughts to deal with at a later time so that you can focus on surviving a situation. That’s why people with PTSD generally don’t remember their trauma. (This is my understanding and I am continuing to do more research while writing so that I don’t miswrite this)  
> If you notice something off, constructive criticism is accepted. Being rude is not and will likely be ignored.  
> Updates will come when they come, I have no schedule.  
> This username’s other social media is dead so nothing to promote.


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